Roslinda’s poor season worsens as she fails to defend title

KUALA LUMPUR: Pole vaulter Roslinda Samsu’s poor season just got worse when she failed to defend her title at the Asian Track and Field (ATF) Championships in Guangzhou, China, yesterday.

The 27-year-old Kedahan could only clear a dismal 3.60m to finish fifth out of eight vaulters.

Roslinda, who bagged the gold medal with a height of 4.20m in the ATF meet in Jordan two years ago, failed to clear 3.80m in all three attempts.

She had also failed to clear the starting heights of 3.80m and 3.90m at the Taiwan Open in July and Malaysian Open last month respectively.

What made it worse was that the winning height yesterday was 4.30m while Roslinda’s national record is 4.40m.

For the record, Li Caixia of China won the gold medal, followed by team-mate Wu Sha (4.15m) and South Korea’s Choi Yun-hee (4.00m).

Melinder Kaur fared no better, clocking 11:07.36 to finish fifth in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase. She holds the national record of 11:04.14.

In the men’s 110m hurdles, Robani Hassan clocked 14.06 to finish fifth.

In the women’s 200m, Nurul Sarah Abdul Kadir and Norjannah Hafiszah Jamaludin did well to qualify for the semi-finals but failed to reach the final.

Nurul clocked 24.54 to finish sixth in the first semi-final while Norjannah clocked a poor 25.34 to finish seventh in the second semi-final.

Mohd Noor Imran fared even worse, failing to make the semi-finals after after crashing out in the men’s 200m heats in a slow 22.19.

There was more failure for Malaysia when middle distance runners Mohd Jironi Riduan and M. Vadivellan failed to qualify for the men’s 800m final.

Jironi of Sarawak clocked 1:52.84 to finish fourth in the first heat while Vadivellan (1:54.38) finished sixth and last in the second heat.

Teoh Boon Lim and Lo Choon Sieng also disappointed in the men’s 20km walk.

Boon Lim, the 2007 Korat SEA Games gold medallist, clocked 1’32.39 to finish sixth and Choon Sieng (1’35.20) seventh out of nine walkers.

Malaysia’s hopes of winning a medal will now rest on high jumper Lee Hup Wei, who had surprised everyone en route to bagging the gold medal in Jordan with a height of 2.24m.

He will be in action today. -NST